Post: #76

As per El Cid's prior post, here is the IHG Pointsbreak list, any of these hotels for 5,000 Points, which, if you buy them during IHG's current promotion, would cost about $35 for the 5000. I wouldn't just buy the points to stockpile them, but if say, one of the hotels is in a desirable location for you, it works out very well, as many of these hotels cost multiples of 5000 award points to book. Costa Rica was one option that I noticed and there are a few for Mexico too (maybe 50 places in the overall list). Asia is pretty light unfortunately for me.

Anyway, if you want to book any of those hotels, sign up for an IHG account, buy the miles (or transfer them from a credit card) and book as soon as possible, as the vacancies are first come, first served and don't last forever.

http://www.ihg.com/hotels/us/en/global/r...ointbreaks

Post: #77

The miles business is a big one. Personally, I primarily use http://travelbloggerbuzz.com/ since he doesn't make money off credit card sign ups. Almost all the other major blogs are credit card sign up machines, which makes their advice extremely biased. A lot of those blog reviews really scream first world problems to the max. However, when you need help to make an award booking, blogs have been real helpful.

One mile at a time and view from the wing pretty much got you covered on new routes / aircraft, which is useful advice.

http://easycaptures.com/fs/uploaded/810/7389954970.jpg - Typical Template used by mile bloggers.

Post: #78

I am writing this entry to provide some insight into the analysis I use to make a decision regarding something thats generally not so useful to do - buy points or miles for a program. Also would love to get feedback - i don't claim to be an expert, and if this is the wrong approach, perhaps someone can point that out.

Here's the scenario - I have 16,500+ Starwood Points. This points are very useful in general, as their transferable for many programs, as well as being usable for free rooms and for points plus cash trades for rooms at the Starwood hotels (Aloft, Westin, Sheraton, W and St. Regis).

During the month of July, American Airlines and US Air are promising a 20 percent bonus on SPG points credited to your account. In addition, SPG gives an "anytime" bonus of 25 percent in points when you transfer in blocks of 20,000. So during July, these two bonuses on a compounded basis, give an extra 50 percent total on transfers of blocks of 20,000 points to AA or USAir.

I don't have 20,000 points, not quite. So to get the bonus, and without a credit card that allows transfer to SPG, I have the choice to wait to transfer my points in a block of 20,000, meaning I lose out on the 20% bonus only available during July (although it will probably come around again, at some point of course).

Looking at the SPG points cost to purchase, 3500 points, which would put me at 20,000+, costs 112.50USD (incidentally, those miles don't count as hotel spend on credit cards giving bonus points for travel spending, as the vendor is points.com, not SPG - this is commonly the case with points purchases FYI). So I'd be out of pocket 112.50, then I'd transfer the 20,000 miles and get credit for 30,000. Is it worth it?

By doing this, how many more AA or US Air miles am I obtaining vs. what I'll get if I wait until I get 20,000 miles the old fashioned way (not buying them). Is it worth it to do that for 112.50 USD.

It comes down to how you value AA or US Air miles and to a smaller degree, how you value the flexibility of having the SPG points in hand to transfer to any program of choice, rather than transferring them to AA or US Airways with no specific need in mind (I have 110,000 US Airways points already, and I have only a handful of AA miles, so the miles for USAir moves me up to a first class award on US Airways, or gives me enough for a coach ticket in North America on AA, and makes my otherwise orphaned AA miles (7,000 or so) useful. Of course, when AA and US Air merge, those miles won't be orphaned anymore, but I digress.)

Essentially here is the question 112.50USD + the flexibility of 25,000 SPG miles soon to be in hand* <?> 8500 extra AA or USAir miles (4200 SPG points/miles (3500 purchased at a 120 percent (the July promotion only, not the normal promotion since I'll get the 25 percent on a future transfer also) purchased and the additional 4300 bonus earned on those miles plus the ones I already have).

Using subjective mileage values from bloggers who have their own fish to fry yields the following:

MileValue values AA miles at 1.77 cents per meaning the value of 8500 miles extra is around 151 USD, more than the 112 I'd have to pay, before taking into account losing the transferability and flexibility, and without considering the possibility a devaluation could happen and make the AA miles less valuable as I have no use for them right now.

OneMileAtATIme has USAir miles at 1.9 cents per miles, giving the 8500 miles a value of 162USD to the purchase, more valuable (this is probably because of US Airs more flexible routing than AA). Again, I have no immediate use for these miles.

Keep in mind the overall value is higher if, say, I knew I was going to book a business class ticket, as the value of US Air miles for that is near 5cents per mile, meaning 112.50 buys me about 400 USD plus of value. Makes the analysis much easier. But buying on spec is a different analysis.

Where am I ending up? I'm not sure, would love the feedback on my analysis - is it right? Am I giving too much value to the purchase in calculating it based on 8500 miles? I'm not certain I'm not double counting the bonus some way. Regardless of the math, right now I am inclined to pass on it, as I travel enough that I feel like the flexibility to use the miles is worth more than the 50USD additional "value" I get from buying the points.

*(I'm heading to Malaysia and Singapore soon, and should round out the mileage to 20,000 as I just achieved Gold on SPG and will get nice bonus points on my stays)

Post: #79

Any idea when the next US airways 100% bonus point buy is on? I want to fly biz to
Asia in October.

Post: #80

Unfortunately, no. They do them periodically, and also do targeted ones that arent open to the public. Finally, they also do sharing miles bonuses which of course only help if (1) you already have miles and (2) you have someone to share them with. They are usually very good deals tho.

(07-29-2014 11:56 PM)Menace Wrote:  Any idea when the next US airways 100% bonus point buy is on? I want to fly biz to
Asia in October.

Post: #81

(07-28-2014 02:50 PM)G_global Wrote:  As per El Cid's prior post, here is the IHG Pointsbreak list, any of these hotels for 5,000 Points, which, if you buy them during IHG's current promotion, would cost about $35 for the 5000. I wouldn't just buy the points to stockpile them, but if say, one of the hotels is in a desirable location for you, it works out very well, as many of these hotels cost multiples of 5000 award points to book. Costa Rica was one option that I noticed and there are a few for Mexico too (maybe 50 places in the overall list). Asia is pretty light unfortunately for me.

Anyway, if you want to book any of those hotels, sign up for an IHG account, buy the miles (or transfer them from a credit card) and book as soon as possible, as the vacancies are first come, first served and don't last forever.

http://www.ihg.com/hotels/us/en/global/r...ointbreaks

IHG pointsbreak are great... if you can get them. Literally within a couple of hours of going live the IC's were getting fully booked. I think Bucharest sold out within 24 hours. Gotta really jump on them quick and have flexible plans. Or just book, hold, and cancel if you don't need to stay there.

Post: #82

I'd suggest frequent travelers consider signing up for Extreme Hotel Deals online. Occasionally they might have something that really works, but by the time I'd repost it here, it would already be sold out most likely. Here is a sample listing I got emailed to me this morning - they have lots in the USA and Europe, haven't seen so many in Asia.

Just fyi, if you're going for status with a chain, this can be helpful. They post Hyatts and Westins and Hiltons sometimes around 25-30USD. Can be useful to top off the number of stays/nights you have with the chain to get status.

Post: #83

This is a frankly amazing hack, one of the best I've seen. Its from Milevalue.com, and it provides a way to use miles accumulated on Singapore Airlines to book a flight on United for 35,000 miles. But the thing is, its not one flight, its one full round trip to hawaii, and two one ways to Central America, all for 35,000 miles in coach or 60,000 miles in Biz Class. Thats ridiculous.

Who benefits? Americans. I'm not going to repeat the post, because thats pointless, but due to Singapore airlines reward chart that puts Hawaii and Central America in the same region (what? huh?), and the stop-over rules on awards, you can start in Central America, fly to your home city in the USA, stay as long pretty much as you like, then fly round trip to Hawaii, back to your home city, and then after another stay in your home city of however long, fly back to central america. So using 35,000 miles, you'd get the two one ways and the round-trip from the USA - you'd have to cash buy a round trip or two one ways at either end to/from Central America (doesn't even need to be the same city in Central America), but its a ridiculously good deal. You could alternatively make the two one ways to/from Hawaii and get the round trip to Central America.

Mile Value link for Singapore Airlines Hack

As previously discussed, you can earn miles from flying Star Alliance airlines such as United and giving your Singapore Airlines number instead - I have SA points and I've never flown that airline (though its supposed to be outstanding). You can also transfer points from AMEX and Chase Ultimate Rewards cards to Singapore, and aggregate them that way. And now, Citi's Thank You Points also transfer to Singapore Air.

60,000 miles business class to Hawaii alone is a good deal, and this gives two one way flights to Central America on top of that. Read the article, there's a similar hack to the Middle East and Europe that you can do as well.

Its this kind of knowledge that makes it possible to really take advantage of the idiosyncrasies in the airline booking systems, and travel for super low cost. If I lived in the USA, I'd definitely be on this one.

Post: #84

Here are some websites that can be useful for finding mileage run opportunities, and the very occasional mistake award.

You can throw them into an RSS feed, which might be the easiest way to keep track. Alternative, setting up a google search alert with the name of your desired destination and the websites name could be good (and I just thought of this, though I've never done it).

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/mileage-run-deals-372/

http://www.farecompare.com/

http://www.airfarewatchdog.com/

http://www.theflightdeal.com/

Post: #85

Yet another reason to bank some Avios - this from One Mile At A Time, applicable to those wanting to travel from the USA to Ireland (via Boston), or vice versa, and this works for one ways as well as round trips. The airline in question to use is Ireland's own, Air Lingus, which has a newly upgraded business class with 78" long beds, on-demand dining (eat when you want to) and wifi included. This is, again, because of British Airways distance based awards chart - 3000 miles for 25,000 each way for biz class, 12,500 for coach, and Boston to Dublin is just under 3000 miles. Boom.



"Quite possibly the best part of this is that Aer Lingus business class is already an amazing use of miles. British Airways Executive Club has a distance based award chart, and flights under 3,000 miles cost 12,500 Avios one-way in economy or 25,000 Avios one-way in business class.

Boston to Dublin is just under 3,000 miles one-way, so at 25,000 Avios one-way in business class is an outstanding value, especially since there are no fuel surcharges. British Airways Executive Club partners with the “big three” transferrable points currencies, including American Express Membership Rewards, Chase Ultimate Rewards, and Starwood Preferred Guest."

Post: #86

For the big electronic music festival, Tomorrowland, Brussels Airlines has launched a Tomorrowland theme flight. If you're going, or even just going to Brussels from Germany, this might be great or very annoying, depending on what you like. Here's the video...link embedding seems problematic, so here's a link too. Flight attendants dressed like fairies. OK>

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17ogDEGvIeI#t=45

Post: #87

OK, so in miles/points "game", there are times when a purchase of a points opportunity on its face seems like a bad deal, and in fact, for many people it would be a bad deal. But for a small segment of the population, the opportunity is actually quite a good deal, not perhaps the best available, but good nonetheless.

American has a current offer for points purchases. If you buy at least 60,000 miles, you get a 25 percent discount. American will let you purchase up to 80,000 miles per year, so realize if you take advantage of this offer, you may not be able to take advantage of more heavily discounted offers this year.

Now this is not a great price for OneWorld miles, and American itself sometimes has more lucrative discounts than this. However if you have travel plans imminently, consider the following:

This from OneMileAtATime, and I agree "With a specific short term use in mind it could still make sense to take advantage of this promotion, like if you can snag Cathay Pacific or Qantas first class award seats. For example, American charges 67,500 miles for a one-way ticket between the US and Asia in first class, so at that rate you could pick up enough miles for a one-way Cathay Pacific first class ticket for just ~$1,500."

"Do keep in mind that American allows five day holds on AAdvantage award tickets, so you can always hold the award tickets, then purchase the miles, and then complete the purchase. Purchased AAdvantage miles don’t post instantly, so expect for it to take 2-3 days for purchased miles to post."

"Also keep in mind that accounts have to be least 14 days old to take advantage of this promotion, and points purchases are processed by points.com, meaning they don’t qualify as airfare spend for the purposes of your credit card."

That will get you from the USA to Hong Kong on the nicest first class in the sky, for less than I paid this past month to fly premium economy one way between Hong Kong and the USA. The first class ticket one-way is



and the roundtrip first class (not that you can get enough miles for it on this promotion) is



So while you're buying the miles at around 2.22 cents per mile, you're redeeming them in first class for 13.8 cents per mile. That's a pretty fantastic arb. Even if you'd never pay full fare on your own dime for first class, given that the Y+ (Premium Economy) fare is more expensive than this, how can you really, truly, go wrong. I might have just talked myself into buying it.

Post: #88

Link to offer? I need this right now.

Post: #89

https://buy.points.com/PointsPartnerFram...E=MktgPgUS

Here is the link. Keep in mind that purchases via Points.com do not count as "travel" spend for credit card bonuses and this is typically the case for purchasing airline miles (almost all of them process through points.com).

Post: #90

Here is a list of the rules for award tickets on some of the major frequent flyer loyalty programs, useful as a quick reference.



Some glossary help.

One Ways - means you can boo a one way award.

Stopover means on the way to your award, you can stop for as long as you like in the stopover before continuing on. For example, if you book NYC to HK, and stop in Dubai, you can hang out in Dubai for a few weeks before continuing on to your ultimate destination. This may be impacted by routing rules however (some do not allow routing through a third continent or only certain third continents).

Open Jaws allow your award to go to one city and return from another, on the same continent/area. For example, book NYC - Hong Kong, but return Shanghai - NYC (or sometimes, a different city).

Free One Way is a routing rule that will allow you to use your home city as a stopover. See this post for a detailed example of using Singaproe Air miles on united to take advantage of this.

Free One Way Hack Post

Fuel surcharges are charges that apply in some cases, some big and some small, to free award tickets. Some airlines charge them and some don't. Usually its done reciprocally between partners. It is a consideration but on a first class transatlantic ticket you've hacked into, perhaps you don't care much about 200 USD in fuel surcharges. Maybe you do, just another factor.

Max segments is how many pieces your flight can have, plays into the free stopover issue discussed above. Some will allow more than one stopover.

The red highlight means the policy is restrictive and green is more beneficial. And keep in mind, this is for the airline your points are on, not for the one you're flying (meaning if your points are on Singapore and you're booking on partner United, the Singapore rules, not the United rules, apply).

Post: #91

Global, thanks so much for this info and the info on PM's. Fortunately I have enough time (I think) to book all my travel biz class. I want to do DC --> HK, then HK --> Tokyo (stop over) --> DC.

Post: #92

Global entry: you are doing a fantastic job compiling useful info from the major bloggers out there. One of my side hustles is writing travel blog entries and I usually amass 500k miles and points a year... after being in the scene for some time, I can see you're pretty well versed in the field. I think Hungweilo is he other guy on this forum that knows a lot about travel hacking.

I would advise all readers who are interested in flying for pennies on the dollar to sign up for travel rewards credit cards and leverage the free miles and points using a variety of tactics.

Post: #93

Thanks Boo. I'm still a novice, actually. Just doing this for a few months, HungWeiLo is a real expert. Thanks for the encouragement. I agree with what you're saying about bonuses and cards - thats the real way to earn miles these days, not by actually flying.

I plan a write some entries on the credit card game and on manufactured spending, all in good time. Thanks for reading.

Post: #94

(08-06-2014 08:49 PM)booshala Wrote:  Global entry: you are doing a fantastic job compiling useful info from the major bloggers out there. One of my side hustles is writing travel blog entries and I usually amass 500k miles and points a year... after being in the scene for some time, I can see you're pretty well versed in the field. I think Hungweilo is he other guy on this forum that knows a lot about travel hacking.

I would advise all readers who are interested in flying for pennies on the dollar to sign up for travel rewards credit cards and leverage the free miles and points using a variety of tactics.

booshala, I haven't been active in doing those credit card promotions because of stuff I hear about related to credit hits. Is it really that bad? Seems like you would know the truth rather than various bits I have gathered. Thanks.

Post: #95

US Airways is doing a targeted 50 percent off miles purchase. Unfortunately its not available to everyone, but see if you've been targeted by logging into your USA account and clicking Buy Miles. If you see the discount, you can. Good for round trips (no one way awards on US Air) in biz or first (if you've a decent chunk in your account already). 1.88 cents per mile, a decent buy for specific usage.

Post: #96

This just in...

The Star Alliance’s proudest new member airline, Air India, seems to have a rat problem.

"Via Channel News Asia:

Air India has been forced to ground one of its planes after crew spotted rats scurrying around the cabin, The Times of India reported on Tuesday. The plane was on its way from New Delhi to Calcutta when staff became aware of the infestation, the paper said.

“Rats on board an aircraft can lead to a catastrophe if they start chewing up electric wires,” the paper quoted an unnamed airline official as saying. “If that happens, pilots will have no control on any system on board leading to a disaster.”

No one at the airline was immediately available for comment, but an Air India official speaking on condition of anonymity said rats on planes were a “common phenomenon” worldwide and could “get in anywhere”. The official added, “They follow the catering vans into the plane when they smell the food.”

This pales in comparison to the time that two Air India pilots allegedly left flight attendants alone in the cockpit so they could take a nap in business class instead (though don’t worry, Air India assures us passenger safety was never at risk)."

Post: #97

Free Hyatt Points for Staying at MGM Properties in Vegas... The promo awards between 1,000 and 3,000 Hyatt Gold Passport bonus points for every three eligible nights spent at M life and Vegas properties in Las Vegas, depending on which property you select.
The promo runs from August 1, 2014 – December 30, 2014.
Hyatt Vegas Promo

1,000 bonus points after every three eligible nights: Luxor, Excalibur, or Hyatt Place Las Vegas
2,000 bonus points after every three eligible nights: MGM Grand, Mandalay Bay, Mirage, THEhotel, The Signature, Vdara, Monte Carlo, or New York New York
3,000 bonus points after every three eligible nights: Bellagio or ARIA
You need to register for this offer by October 15th.

Post: #98

(08-06-2014 10:07 PM)samsamsam Wrote:  

(08-06-2014 08:49 PM)booshala Wrote:  Global entry: you are doing a fantastic job compiling useful info from the major bloggers out there. One of my side hustles is writing travel blog entries and I usually amass 500k miles and points a year... after being in the scene for some time, I can see you're pretty well versed in the field. I think Hungweilo is he other guy on this forum that knows a lot about travel hacking.

I would advise all readers who are interested in flying for pennies on the dollar to sign up for travel rewards credit cards and leverage the free miles and points using a variety of tactics.

booshala, I haven't been active in doing those credit card promotions because of stuff I hear about related to credit hits. Is it really that bad? Seems like you would know the truth rather than various bits I have gathered. Thanks.

The hit to your credit is severely overstated in a lot of sources. Personally, I have signed up for over 80 credit cards in the past three years, and my score is still in the 780-790 range. You get a 3-5 point hit per inquiry, but it bounces back very quickly. Be much more concerned about not having late payments and keeping your credit utilization ratio low and your credit won't be affected at all.

Also, coming from a lending background, basically anything over 720 (some say 740) is Tier 1 credit and is essentially all the same.

Post: #99

So I've written in this space a few times regarding the value of British Airways miles for short domestic flights and short international flights, using the OneWorld network. I went to Phnom Penh from HK on DragonAir (Cathay's sister airline) for 15,000 roundtrip (a three hour flight). Similar length flights are the same cost anywhere a OneWorld partner flies and carry only taxes, no fuel surcharges on most routes. A flight of 500 miles or less (like SF to Las Vegas) would be only 9000 miles roundtrip, while booking directly on America would be possibly more than double, and almost triple that number. As a result, I definitely recumbent keeping some Avios (the BAEC currency) on hand in your-already set up BAEC account. Hear me: You don't even need to step on BA Metal to make very good usage of this arb.

Anyway, BAEC is offering a discount on buying Avios, upto 30 percent, for purchases through the end of August. If you've a short flight coming up, its very much worth it. It works out to around 2.19 cents per Avios, so if the ticket would cost you more than that vs. figuring out the mileage to use x 2.19, then you're better off buying the miles. If not, and this may be true for longer flights, rarely for flights of less than 4 hrs, then just pay for the ticket. Do the math, and make the purchase. I'm not sure I'd buy them on spec, especially if you have SPG or AMEX points you can transfer into Avios rather than buying them. Lots of ways out there to earn Avios.

Taking the girl to Malaysia and Singapore next week, and I used Avios to book both ways (Business going, Dragonair, and Cathay returning in Coach). 10,000 each for the return for a ticket that would have been, get this, 1300+ USD (the other airlines had very unattractive travel times or connected through KL, which I didn't feel like doing). That's 13 cents per mile on redemption. Even the flights that were indirect were 200 each with seven hour travel times due to the stopover, so this was a good deal, and booking with Cathay miles would have cost more than double (25K miles per, not 10K), even though I'm flying the exact same flight. That's one of the most important things to get about the Miles game - depending on which airlines' miles you use to book, if you can have a markedly different redemption cost to fly the exact same flight in the exact same class. The flight down to Penang, at 20,000 per ticket, was a bit less of an arb, but was still worth it vs. paying cash for the ticket. I think it worked out to within 4-5cents per mile.

Post: #100

I agree that this is an overrated factor. It shouldn't deter you from applying for a single credit card. I wouldn't necessarily say that you should apply for bunches of them at a time, because that can have somewhat of a significant effect on your credit, temporarily, and perhaps more than you want.

Credit though is long game, and little blips of 3-5 shouldn't impact achieving your objectives if your otherwise disciplined in your approach - never be late on payments and don't push cards near their max (and don't cancel your longest held cards).

(08-09-2014 11:16 PM)booshala Wrote:  

(08-06-2014 10:07 PM)samsamsam Wrote:  

(08-06-2014 08:49 PM)booshala Wrote:  Global entry: you are doing a fantastic job compiling useful info from the major bloggers out there. One of my side hustles is writing travel blog entries and I usually amass 500k miles and points a year... after being in the scene for some time, I can see you're pretty well versed in the field. I think Hungweilo is he other guy on this forum that knows a lot about travel hacking.

I would advise all readers who are interested in flying for pennies on the dollar to sign up for travel rewards credit cards and leverage the free miles and points using a variety of tactics.

booshala, I haven't been active in doing those credit card promotions because of stuff I hear about related to credit hits. Is it really that bad? Seems like you would know the truth rather than various bits I have gathered. Thanks.

The hit to your credit is severely overstated in a lot of sources. Personally, I have signed up for over 80 credit cards in the past three years, and my score is still in the 780-790 range. You get a 3-5 point hit per inquiry, but it bounces back very quickly. Be much more concerned about not having late payments and keeping your credit utilization ratio low and your credit won't be affected at all.

Also, coming from a lending background, basically anything over 720 (some say 740) is Tier 1 credit and is essentially all the same.